The present invention is in the technical field of broadcast notification systems for vehicle drivers.
Each year in the United States collisions between dispatched emergency response vehicles and passenger vehicles take the lives of many emergency responders and civilian drivers. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approximately 200 people each year are killed and many thousands more are injured in collisions involving emergency vehicles responding to calls for service. From the year 2000 to the time of this filing, more than 150 law enforcement officers have been killed and thousands more officers have been injured as a result of collisions with vehicles while responding to calls or attending to incidents along the roadways. Similar statistics are known for tow truck drivers, construction and road maintenance workers and for children boarding and debarking a school bus. To prevent these tragedies there is a need for a robust notification system that warn vehicle drivers about approaching emergency vehicles, the presence of road workers, busses and other roadside incidence.
Emergency and other roadside vehicles such as maintenance workers and busses have historically used flashing lights and audible horns or sirens to notify the public of their presence. However, visual and auditory signals remain inadequate as oftentimes drivers may have obstructed visibility or audible awareness and remain unaware of these indicators.
To overcome these limitations, it has been attempted to program and control traffic signals to allow traffic to flow only in the direction of the responding emergency vehicle. However this approach is limited in that not all geographic areas are covered with signals and it does not provide notice to vehicles travelling in the same direction as the emergency vehicle. Additionally, the system does not address the situation when a vehicle is stopped on the road in the direction of the emergency vehicle.
Attempts have been made to use AM and FM radio signals to provide localized signaling. This approach is also limited in that the nature and specific details of the incident are not communicated. These systems generally override or over power other RF broadcasts in the area and use the vehicles radio system which are within range as the communication channel. To displace other broadcasts, the power output and bandwidth required for these systems far exceeds the allowed limits set by the FCC, causing interference with all RF devices within range. Further, if a driver is listening to recorded sound such as a digital CD or audio player and does not have the radio turned on no signal is received by the motorist.
Some systems have attempted to provide dedicated transmitter/receiver systems with selective messages to be broadcast; however, the system is limited in that it is a one way systems that requires the user to manually select the message type that will be transmitted, which can be impracticable in many situations. Additionally, these systems have limited range and cannot provide warning to vehicles approaching the scene until such vehicle is in range of the incident.